It was officially announced that the changes in the climate will make our lives harder in the years to come. A new report was released this week and this report highlights the money that the people of the U.S. are paying. In the year 2012, it was found that there are going to be 10 major climate-related events that will likely lead to 1000 more deaths, $10 billion in healthcare costs and nearly 21,000 citizens hospitalized.
Climatic changes researchers from the University of California (Los Angeles), Columbia University, and the non-profit environmental advocacy group NDRC, Natural Resources Defense Council, revealed that the extreme climatic conditions of this year are very similar to the extreme climatic conditions of the year 2012. Researches are under the impression that these extreme weather events are strongly linked.
This report was published in the GeoHealth Journal.
On the overall, the researches have found that these extreme weather events have directly contributed to deaths of 917 citizens, 17,857 emergency department visits, and an estimated 20, 568 hospitalizations. They have concluded that the financial costs of all the medical cases have amounted to a massive $10 billion, though the overall costs would have been in the range of $2.7 billion to a whopping $24.6 billion.
The most powerful and impactful event was Hurricane Sandy which has alone lead to 300 deaths and has cost about $3.1 billion in losses in the medical field.
However, the Wildfires have costed slightly more than Hurricane Sandy. The lost property and the damages have exactly topped billions by both the hurricane and the wildfires.
The researches have found that the most vulnerable parts of the country were most hit by extreme climatic changes. Two-thirds of the overall costs were related to the medical issues which were taken care of by Medicaid and Medicare, which are government-based health care programs. These government-based programs primarily cover the poor and the elderly.